Review: LET US PREY (2014){0}

The arrival of a new Pollyanna McIntosh movie is generally worthy of note among genre fans, mainly because the fantastic Scottish actress seems to have pretty solid taste in horror scripts (Offspring, The Woman, White Settlers, etc.), but also because she’s a fine lead actor… and super pretty to boot. (Full disclosure: Yes, we’ve met. She’s lovely. Sue me.)

So yes, the new horror movie Let Us Prey stars Polly Mac – but even if it didn’t, and if they’d cast a similarly solid actress in the lead role, you’d still have an unexpectedly amusing genre import that manages to combine Twilight Zone and John Carpenter into an “all in one night” chiller best described as “Occult in Precinct 13.”

The plot is admirably simple: an isolated police station houses four prisoners and five cops, only one of the criminals is a mysterious figure who seems to have monumentally creepy supernatural powers. For example, the passive captive known as “Six” knows that one of the cops has a lot of skeletons hidden in his closet, literally, and that the local doctor has been up to some seriously bad behavior. As the mystery man, Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) brings an inestimable sense of intensity and quiet class to the grim proceedings. (We should all be as cool as this man.)

Given that Let Us Prey unfolds almost like a nine-character stage play, it doesn’t take long before we realise that this police station is some sort of way-station somewhere between heaven, hell, and limbo – but the fun is in watching which characters figure it out, and in how they try to save their skins once the clock strikes midnight and various sorts of hell break loose. On one side we have the insidious and evil Liam Cunningham; on the other is the noble and heroic Pollyanna McIntosh. Fun stuff.

Crisply and cleverly put together by first-time director Brian O’Malley and co-writers David Cairns & Fiona Watson, Let Us Prey knows that you’ll figure out some of the “twists” well before the kind-hearted PC Rachel (McIntosh) does, so the filmmakers also throw in a few extra jolts you probably won’t see coming. (I counted at least two “WTF?” moments, and I mean that in a good way.) Keep your eyes on Douglas Russell as the jittery Sgt. MacReady, too, because the character goes through some wild changes, and the actor seems to be having more and more fun as the film gets darker, bloodier, and considerably more unpredictable.

Basically, Let Us Prey follows one of the golden rules of indie horror filmmaking: take something you like (in this case, Assault on Precinct 13 or any sort of self-contained “ticking clock” thriller) and then combine that with enough fresh material to make your own mark. Let Us Prey is half an homage to horror stories you already know, and half a collection of themes, ideas, moments, and shocks you might not see coming. And even if you do, there’s more than enough energy here to keep things fun as it all plays out.

Scott Weinberg (@ScottEWeinberg)

LET US PREY is on US VOD, DVD & Blu-ray now.